Definition

One must make a distinction however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the result is not poetry, nor till the autocrats among us can be “literalists of the imagination”—above insolence and triviality and can present for inspection, imaginary gardens with real toads in them, shall we have it.

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Saturday, July 7, 2012

The Sunday Challenge ~ Featuring Gemma Wiseman

I am sure that Gemma, of Gemma's Greyscale, needs no formal introduction to those of us who are a part of the on-line blogging community, and it is my pleasure to feature her work both as poet and photographer on Real Toads this weekend.

Portrait of the Artist

From Sydney in New South Wales, to the hamlet of Liffey in northern Tasmania, to the MorningtonPeninsula in Victoria I have swirled the changing environments of my life into my poetry. Those environments include my world of a high school teacher. Along the way, my passion for photography has grown, probably an inheritance from my father. It seemed inevitable that my love of photography and poetry became two halves of my writer’s dream, my writer’s reality.

Any subject, any moment can become a poetic treat. At times – usually over school holidays - my curiosity likes to dabble in, experiment with poetic forms. Shadorma, gogyohka, kyrielle, pantoum, pleiades, tau, monostich and sevenling have been interesting experiences. And sometimes I have tried the occasional sonnet. But when time is pushed, there is nothing like the neat haiku to relieve the creative spirit.

I am passionate about photography, always seeking the unusual perspective. This photograph captures my interest in the circumstantial mixture of textures and patterns. Sometimes I see an unexpected, quirky moment that is bound to stir a smile! Why not imagine a poetic dialogue. Sometimes poetry needs a healthy injection of humour.

People! What a treasure trove for writing when the time of highs and lows, the tones and metaphors are waiting in free verse. For some reason, I always feel a pinch of sadness when I see and hear a street musician. This guy in particular played the most haunting musical pulses. I spent about an hour leaning on a pole, just listening, enchanted. I still don't even know his name.

My latest ventures involve writing poetry to lesser known paintings on myAuraGem’s Painterly Songlinesand writing poetic review of books onSonglines on the Winds. I feel reviews can become narrow glimpses, sometimes cold and calculating overviews of their subjects. So I am trying to capture the spirit of the painting or book without casting judgment or blurring the freedom of another’s response. I am always looking for new ways of giving poetry a voice in the 21stcentury.

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The Sunday Challenge is posted on Saturday at noon CST to allow extra time for the creative process, so please do not link up old work which kind of fits the image. Members will only respond to poetry written specifically for this prompt: this is in the spirit of our Real Toads project to create opportunities for poets to be newly inspired. Management reserves the right to remove unrelated links but invites you to share a poem of your choice on Open Link Monday.

Greetings to all poets, wayfarers and friends. February has long been a month of romance and is associated with Valentine's Day ce...

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The members of this blog claim no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. All images displayed on this blog are copyrighted to their respective owners and are used for the sole purpose of art for art's sake. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it to appear on this site, please email theimaginarygarden@gmail.com with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.